Pros:
- Innova DISCatcher baskets in good shape
- practice basket
- tee signs with color maps are decent
- mostly straightforward navigation
- ample parking
- incorporates some elevation change with rolling hills
- good variety of hole lengths
- property appears to be well maintained
Cons:
- almost entirely wide open with no real challenge
- artificial turf tees are just ok and are showing some signs of age
- can be a little confusing to find the start of the course
- hole 9 plays a bit close to the church building
- new building being constructed in middle of hole 2 fairway
- ok for beginners, but no unique qualities for the typical player
- a few natural tees
Other Thoughts:
My biggest takeaway after reading some of the other reviews is that this course is hilariously overrated. In is a passable enough course and in general, is in great shape for what it is, but it is a pretty typical church course. Even rating this as high as a 2 felt generous, and I settled on 1.5. Door Creek has almost no obstacles and is mostly wide open. A few holes incorporate some nice elevation change, but given the hill the church sits on, a lot of the course is still remarkably flat. There is a huge retention pond on the property but it doesn't really come into play unless you make a really errant throw.
There is just no challenge here; there is a variety of hole lengths, fairly decent equipment, and it's suitable enough for a beginner learning, but nothing unique. You won't really have to shot shape here. In addition, the new building going up in the middle of the "fairway" - if you can call it that - on hole 2 takes away from the quality of the course.
Some of the navigation flow is slightly disjointed, but it's straightforward enough that I think most people can figure it out; it's 9 holes that mostly flow in a straight path. Hole 9 doesn't really end up right where hole 1 starts, but it's relatively close to the same parking area. Note that some people park on the street near holes 1/9 rather than in the actual church parking lot, since it is a bit closer to the fairways.
There's nothing inherently wrong with Door Creek for a quick round or some field practice. I wouldn't recommend playing on Sunday mornings when church is going on, but any other time I'd expect this place to be deserted. The pictures mostly tell the story here, but given the reviews I think I expected it to be slightly more impressive. This one is only worth a stop if you are bagging or need a really quick round. There are so many good courses in the Madison area, this one doesn't really add anything to the landscape.